Lightbox Ventures

Lightbox logo

Lightbox is a venture capital firm based in Mumbai. It invests early in consumer tech companies in India.[1]

Operating as Sherpalo for the last nine years, investments include InMobi, Cleartrip, Naukri.com and GreenDust.[2]

Partners and founding

Lightbox Partners at their office in Mumbai.

Sandeep Murthy, Sid Talwar, Prashant Mehta, Sunny Rao and Jeremy Wenokur are general partners at the firm.

Sandeep Murthy had spent the previous nine years advising Sherpalo Ventures on India investments.[3] Other Indian based partners include Siddharth Talwar, an angel investor who founded and sold Evolv to NIIT, and Prashant Mehta, former CEO of Komli Media. The US partners include Sunny Rao, currently CEO of ZoomIn, who earlier co-founded Half.com, and Jeremy Wenokur, an angel investor, formerly the first business development executive at Google. [4]

Between 2012 and 2014, the partners were investing in tech companies in India. Separately and together, they invested in early stage startups such as ShopClues and Embibe. [5]

On 30 April 2014, the firm launched two funds to invest in the consumer technology space in India.[6] Lightbox Fund I acquired equity stakes in GreenDust, ZoomIn, MapmyIndia, Paymate, FutureBazaar and Kotak Solar. Lightbox Fund II was launched as a $90 million (₹540 crore) fund for a concentrated investment portfolio of eight companies in which it will invest $3 to 5 million in Series A funding with an investment horizon of 7–8 years.

A month after the launch, Lightbox along with Kalaari Capital announced a $4 million investment in test prep company Embibe, founded by Aditi Avasthi.[7]

In May 2014, Economic Times named Murthy in their list of 'India's hottest 40 under 40' business leaders.[8]

On 13 October 2014, Lightbox announced the close of its second fund at $100 million (₹600 crores).[9] Lightbox Ventures II was also awarded the VC Fundraiser of the Year at the VCCircle Awards 2015.[10]

In the first quarter of 2015, Lightbox invested $7 million (₹42 crores) in tech-enabled fast food chain Faasos, founded by Jaydeep Barman.[11] and $6 million (₹36 crores) in India's first furniture subscription business Furlenco. [12]

In July 2015, Lightbox invested $15.6 million (₹100 crores) in Droom, an Indian marketplace to buy and sell automobiles, that was founded by former ShopClues CEO Sandeep Aggarwal.[13] and subsequently participated in its Series B funding less than a year later. The Series B round of equity financing was led by Singapore-based investor Beenext, founded by former Beenos founder and chief executive Teruhide Sato, and Japanese incubator and venture capital firm Digital Garage. [14]

In January 2016, Lightbox invested $5 million (₹34 crores) in Melorra, an online jewellery company, and the first seed stage investment for the firm. [15]

Companies Exited

Current Portfolio

Company Field
GreenDust Refurbished Goods Ecommerce
Zoomin Digital Photo Personalization & Printing
PayMate Online Payment Solutions
Kotak Solar Renewable Solar Technology
Embibe Education Technology
Faasos Curated marketplace for food
Furlenco Online Furniture Subscription
Droom Online Automobile Marketplace
Melorra Online Jewellery

References

  1. ↑ "We can build large-scale global tech companies from India: Sandeep Murthy". 14 May 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "Two Paths Taken In India: Kleiner Quits, Sequoia Charges Ahead". Forbes. 9 June 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "Sherpalo Partner Launches $90M India Fund As Ram Shriram, Kleiner Shift Focus Away From India". TechCrunch. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  4. ↑ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-01-06/news/57747890_1_sherpalo-ventures-mobile-internet-sandeep-murthy
  5. ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Investors-back-test-prep-site-Embibe/articleshow/34559077.cms
  6. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/30/sherpalo-partner-launches-90m-india-fund-as-ram-shriram-kleiner-shift-focus-away-from-india/
  7. ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Investors-back-test-prep-site-Embibe/articleshow/34559077.cms
  8. ↑ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/newslist/34519765.cms
  9. ↑ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-10-14/news/55014183_1_greendust-ivycap-ventures-venture-capital
  10. ↑ http://www.vccircle.com/news/others/2015/02/18/ola-bandhan-laurus-trimax-vini-zomato-among-winners-vccircle-awards-2015
  11. ↑ http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/food-e-tailer-faaso-s-plans-to-raise-up-to-rs-498-cr-at-valuation-of-rs-2-400-cr-115040700029_1.html
  12. ↑ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-03-24/news/60439285_1_rent-ur-duniya-ajith-karimpana-furniture
  13. ↑ https://www.techinasia.com/india-droom-funding-marketplace-for-automobile/
  14. ↑ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2016-06-02/news/73516896_1_series-b-round-lightbox-crore-funding-round
  15. ↑ http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/startups/melorra-seed-funding-5-million-lightbox/50488305

External links

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